Staff Sergeant Karol Raymond Bauer, who lived in Wrightstown and is buried in New Hope, was memorialized when a Bucks County bridge in New Hope was named in his honor on October 31st.
The Pennsylvania Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (PAVVMF) and the County of Bucks conducted the dedication ceremony at Bucks County Bridge No. 36, which carries Stockton Avenue across the Aquetong Creek.
The dedication continues the ongoing collaboration by the PAVVMF and Bucks County to honor local servicemen who were among the 136 killed in action or missing in the Vietnam War.
Born in New York City and raised in the Fox Chase section of Philadelphia, Bauer was killed April 30th, 1967 as he led a platoon of Company M, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines, 3rd Marine Division, at Khe Sanh in the Quang Tri Province of Vietnam.
He was one of six Philadelphia-area servicemen to die in Vietnam that day, the most on any single day during the war. Bauer had enlisted in the Marines in 1956 after leaving Olney High School and later obtained a high school diploma while in the service.
His wife, Mary, and their 18-month-old daughter, Melissa, resided in Wrightstown at the time of his death. He was 28-years-old and had served the United States as a Marine for 11 years.
Bauer is buried in Thompson Memorial Cemetery in New Hope, a little more than two miles from the bridge that will bear his name.
PAVVMF is working with Bucks County on the dedication of bridges in honor of Bucks County servicemen and women who died in the Vietnam War.
PAVVMF previously created and in 2021 dedicated the Lower Bucks County Vietnam Veterans Memorial (LBCVVM) to Lower Bucks victims of the Vietnam War; many of its members also were instrumental in bringing the Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall to Bucks County in 2017.
For more information visit lbcvvm.org.
PHOTO CAPS:
- Staff Sergeant Karol Raymond Bauer
- Warriors’ Watch Riders Flag Line at the bridge dedication ceremony.